Chapter Text
Being on this specific cliff had always given Keith the peace he needs in times of stress. He’d practically lived on this specific cliff and beach for the four years he’s been in this small, seaside town. Running a hand through his hair, Keith buries his chin into the crook of his elbow as he sits with his knees pulled to his chest. The day had been too hot and he’d passed out while cleaning the pool he was responsible for maintaining at the local community center - the pay isn’t the best but it gets him out of the house for about six hours a day every day and a good hundred dollars in his pocket every week after taxes. His manager had found out about his passing out so early on in his shift today and ended up sending him home, demanding that he not come in the following day either to “recuperate.” Keith already knows the real reason behind his manager being so “considerate”: they’re giving him less hours, less pay, less health insurance coverage… It’s all a lot for a nineteen year old to maintain on a part-time job but he’s managed pretty well. If “managing well” would include flunking out of school due to being at this particular cliff because he’d been too stressed to leave this spot for hours at a time.
The cliff he’s sitting on the edge of isn’t a very popular place. Behind him is some forest that only goes a hundred yards before you hit a road and some walking trails. The cliff face in front of him is a sheer drop of forty feet with a lot of patches of sharp rocks cropping up in the small beach being lapped at by the ocean. Keith watches the tide come in silently. There’s only two safe paths to climb down to the beach and he always chooses to sit near the shorter of the two. Only a few people even bother to come over to this nook in the beach line since it’s so far from town and the water is so choppy and filled with unseen currents just off the shore. None of this bothers Keith, though. Instead, the welcome silence and isolation gives him a second home right here on the cliff. No memories or financial struggles can reach him on the cliff side. Only the ocean below is able to talk or yell at him and he's grateful.
His silent reprieve from the stress of the day is soon interrupted by a loud voice promising a show to unknown people. Keith looks back at the woods behind him and glares at the movement he can see as someone approaches his quiet beach. He’s hidden from the other safe path down by some bushes that line the cliff between the two paths. When the shouting idiot finally manages to get out of the woods and to the cliff face, Keith is briefly able to see that the moron looks kinda familiar. He barely gets to see dark skin and a cocky smile before the other kid starts turning around to climb down free-style to get to the rocky shore line. Keith watches from his hidden spot as the other man manages to climb down with shocking ease to the rocky shore below. To his eye, it almost seems that the moron has practice going down the longer path.
When he hears the kid shout something excited, Keith sits up in surprise. The idiot is actually pulling his jacket off. Now his shoes and socks.. The moron is going to swim in this water at high tide! Keith sits and watches in shock as the stranger willingly runs across the rocky sand barefoot, into the rough water that pulls out even the strongest swimmers! Without even hesitating, Keith gets up and starts down his own preferred path to the water. He only has his back turned for a few moments but he hears shouts for help by the time his feet hit the sand.
Tearing off his jacket as he runs, Keith manages to kick his shoes off on his way to the water but has to pause when he pulls his socks off. He leaves both pairs behind on the rocks as the shouts grow more frantic before stopping altogether. The noise of the waves is the only sound Keith can hear just as he catches sight of the dark hair against the blue water with arms flailing to stay above the water. He feels panic grip him as he all but dives into the water. Always a strong swimmer, especially in his little beach, Keith is shocked to feel sharp pain start up the moment he’s in the water. Writing it off as the water beating against him, Keith fights the currents he's so used to in order to get out to the drowning guy. As far out as Keith remembers seeing the kid, Keith finds himself grabbing the other much too soon even for his usual speed in the water. He pulls the limp man to the surface, gasping for a breath and finding that his gasp isn’t all too helpful. He should feel out of breath, dizzy, something . But instead his breaths are coming easy to him, as though he hadn’t been holding his breath all the way out here. Keith reorients them both towards the shore, feeling his chest tighten when he doesn’t feel his legs reacting. He looks down, trying to see his legs but only sees bright red rippling straight below him.
The sputter of coughing in his arm brings Keith back from his panic. Something’s wrong with him but he’d still managed to turn them back to shore, so maybe it’s not that bad. Keith realizes he doesn’t feel any pain, so he focuses himself on the kid he’s trying to save from drowning after being pulled out by the currents. Holding the limp boy close with one arm and making sure that his head is held above the water, Keith starts swimming back to shore. He feels something starting to hurt in his back just as he realizes how much faster they’re getting back to land compared to the last time he’d swam in these currents.
Way too soon, Keith feels sand against what should be his feet but even with the tide this high he knows that he shouldn’t even be close to touching any sand. Putting his focus back on the half-drowned guy in his arms, Keith powers through the currents and lands them both on the shore. He lands on the sharp rocks first, grunting at the pain as they tear apart his shirt and into his stomach and chest. Somehow he manages to keep the idiot in his arms from being too hurt by the rocks. Keith struggles with himself in attempts to stand, wanting to get the guy he just saved to a safe spot to save him. Each time he fails to get his legs under him, Keith grows more frustrated. Finally, he gets on his elbows and looks behind him to see why he can’t stand.
Behind him, where his legs should be, is a bright red tail the same color as his favorite jacket. It moves and fights as he wants his actual legs to. Where the tail bends, two guiding fins are splayed as he’s struggling to move. The far end of his tail is still in the water and he barely sees a lump in the center of his back under his shirt just in his periphery. Another sputtering cough draws his attention away from his own issues as he realizes the situation he’s in once more. Keith pushes himself off the ground with one hand, ignoring the realization of his torso blending into the red scales that make up the tail that starts just below his navel, and pulls the half-drowned man close again. Biting down hard, he doesn’t cry out at the pain of dragging his heavy body across the rocky shore. He can feel where places on his tail become slick with blood as the rocks fight and tear into him. Tears sting his eyes as he fights his much heavier body to get the man to safety.
Finally…
Finally he gets them both away from the water, away from the danger of being pulled out by a high wave. He lays the stranger across the rocky sand, making sure the ground is as even and rock free as possible. He checks for breathing and gives a loud sigh of relief when he feels the weak breath moving out of the young man. The guy’s just passed out.. Keith winces as his tail - he still hasn’t freaked out properly about this part of himself yet - pulls closer to his body and drags across more rocks. Looking back over his shoulder, Keith frowns at the trail of red he sees behind him. It’s a lot.. He swallows hard, fighting his hardest to keep from throwing up what little lunch he’d eaten earlier today.
Somehow he has a bright red tail where his legs had been. Keith begins to worry his lip but he quickly stops when he tastes blood. Pulling one hand up from where he’s fighting to keep himself upright, Keith wipes the sand from his hand and starts to explore his mouth. What breath he had just leaves his body altogether. His canines are practically fangs . Keith fights with himself to get a breath, his chest heaving as he pulls his hand from his mouth only to see red scales on the back of it as well…! With his hand pulled away from his face, Keith finally sees the dark, purplish webbing that’s grown between his fingers. He can’t breathe. He’s quite literally on the edge of his mind, fighting against the panic trying to take him over. His hands move to tear at his shirt with how stretched it is. It only takes him two pulls before he tears his shirt off his body. He can feel a fin stretch out along his spine once it’s freed from his shirt. Looking down at his chest, he sees red and purple scales decorating random patches of his body with a large concentration of them hanging around some slits on his ribs.
Somehow he’s snapped out of his self-centered panic by a forgotten voice. He looks up at the face staring at him, his panic doubling when he doesn’t immediately recognize what emotion he’s seeing. The guy he just saved is talking to him.